Twitch added a few joke categories for April Fools’ Day, and some streamers took them seriously. Thousands of people watched Merry Kish silently read a book on stream for an hour, some typing into the emote-only chat.
She did this in the new Silent Reading category, where streamers are encouraged to sit and read. They kept themselves to themselves. Not in their conversation. Merry did exactly that, letting the chat talk to each other while she worked on her book Lovesickness. She didn’t stop there, though, for April Fools’ Day.
Merry Kish, Twitch’s head of community, hosted the stream on Twitch’s official channel, inviting others to participate in the festivities with themed broadcasts. Some of them did. Girl dm, a VTuber, even managed to rickroll her viewers.
Girl dm has joined the hottest new category, Literally Just Chatting. Pizza Time, Character Creation, Errands, Chores, and Odd Jobs are all included, but it was Literally Just Chatting that went viral, despite the fact that it hasn’t been used properly by everyone. The idea is that the chat will converse amongst itself while the streamer remains silent. Girl dm acted in this manner.
She put up a “be right back” screen with the chat, allowing them to see themselves as they conversed, but then she returned with fan art and Never Gonna Give You Up, Rickrolling her audience. After that, it was back to Elden Ring to rest while chat recovered.
You can watch Merry read a book for an hour on VOD if you really want to, but not much happens. You could put it on the TV and read on the sofa like you’re in an at-home library, or you could just go to the library. She takes a sip of her coffee every now and then, flips a page every so often, and gets on with her book – you could stick it on the TV and read on the sofa like you’re in an at-home library, but you could also just go to the library.
In other Twitch news that isn’t April Fools-related, Pokimane has become the first woman to reach nine million followers, and is rapidly approaching ten million. Can she now persuade ten million people to watch her read a book in silence?
